“[God] has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors...” 2 Corinthians 5:19,20, NIV
According to God’s Word, Christ’s followers are also His ambassadors. That truth has many implications for our everyday lives, but for me it’s especially relevant in my work as a missionary journalist. Many of my writing assignments require me to travel, and when I do, I depart from Canada with a strong sense of mission.
However, unlike a political ambassador, my mission is to advocate to Canadian Christians for people who still need the Bible in their language. Since joining the staff of Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1998, I’ve been privileged to travel to a dozen countries across Africa, Asia, South America and the 
Pacific. I realize that few people will ever have many of the opportunities I’ve had, but I believe any journey that’s consecrated to God is sacred when it blesses others and furthers His kingdom.
My travels often take me to language groups that don’t have God’s Word in their mother tongue. According to current research, about 1,700 language groups do not have even a single verse of Scripture translated into their “heart” language—the one they use daily to express their deepest thoughts and feelings. As minority language groups, they are often poor, marginalized and lacking even basic education.
The stories I write for Word Alive magazine help shine light on their needs and the challenges they face, so our readers can learn more about them and assist them in various ways. It’s an advocacy role God began preparing me for when I was just a young boy.
Searching for Purpose
Beginning in my teens, I sensed a growing desire to see the world. That desire found expression on my bedroom walls, which I covered with travel posters and a collage of colourful postcards. As I matured, I looked for ways to couple my growing wanderlust with a sense of purpose.
The first opportunity came in 1976, about a year after I surrendered control of my life to Jesus. That summer, I joined a team of 28 young college students on an outreach to serve earthquake victims in Guatemala. Working in two refugee camps in Guatemala City, we built simple houses and a community feeding centre, distributed clothing and played basketball with young people in the community.
As rewarding as our work was, even more satisfying was the laughter I shared with children or some of the many teens we met at the basketball court. Much of our laughter was the result of our mutually awkward efforts to overcome language and cultural barriers.
Since then, I’ve been blessed to share countless sacred moments like those with people of many countries and cultures. They have welcomed my colleagues and me into their homes, their churches and their communities. They have shared their food—even in a time of famine, as we experienced in Chad. And as they have shared their stories, many have told us, with great joy and gratitude, that God’s Word came alive for them when they finally received it in their mother tongue.
Even the Smallest of Nations
Sometimes, my journeys seem infused with God’s presence and power, like a memorable river trip in 2007 that took me, photographer colleague Alan Hood and four others into Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Brazilian authorities had granted us permission to visit two villages in the interior, but as we began our long journey, I remember thinking it was really God who had arranged our visit. I felt profoundly privileged, especially when we passed a sign along the shoreline that warned river travellers they were entering a restricted area. But I also realized the privilege wasn’t about me; the Lord had sent me to the Amazon and opened doors for Alan and me because of His deep love for the indigenous peoples there.
To reach remote villages in Brazil’s Amazon region, travellers pass through turbulent waters that often conceal large rocks just below the surface. (Photo by Alan Hood)
To visit the first of two remote villages, we journeyed for more than six hours in an open 28-ft. aluminum boat, under a scorching tropical sun. At times, we held our breath as our pilot navigated the long boat through a series of turbulent rapids, and navigated slowly around swirling pools of white water.
Later, we learned that several people had died on that stretch of the river after their boats capsized.
After a few days interviewing and photographing people in the first village, we continued our journey by boat for several more hours to reach a second village of about 225 people. Only 70 people were living there in 1982 when a Brazilian missionary couple, Isaac and Shirley Souza, came to live among them and begin translating the Bible. Over the past 30 years, the Souzas have endured sickness, danger and frequent separations from their two daughters. When I asked them why they had sacrificed so much to translate the Scriptures for such a small group, their response touched me deeply.
“It’s not a matter of size,” Isaac explained. “It’s that Jesus died for everyone. The main goal we have is to translate the Bible . . . so that they understand the gospel, the love of God, the reason Jesus died.
“That’s most important.”
During an afternoon visit with one family, Isaac and Shirley Souza share a worship song they translated into the villagers’ mother tongue. (Photo by Alan Hood)
Motivated by God’s Love
People like Isaac and Shirley greatly inspire me; they have dedicated their lives to serving others in the name of Christ, with little thought to earthly rewards. In my travels I’ve met countless people like them, who demonstrate God’s love in a variety of ways. Some, like the Souzas, are national partners, serving people in their own country or language group, while others are expatriates, serving in diverse places around the world.
A few years before my trip to Brazil, I travelled with another Wycliffe photographer to eastern Cameroon. There, Canadians Yves and Christine Léonard and their three daughters were living among Baka pygmies in a small village on the edge of the rainforest. Yves worked with some Baka helpers to develop an alphabet and translate Scripture in written form, but because the Baka are primarily an oral culture, he also learned how to share Bible stories using oral storytelling techniques familiar to them.
Christine Léonard plays with a Baka infant in a pygmy village in eastern Cameroon. (Photo by Dave Crough)
The Léonards want the Baka to discover the same love that changed their own lives so dramatically. By translating Scripture, they’re hopeful that every Baka man, woman and child will soon understand that Jesus is God’s love personified. Additionally, Yves and Christine want to help the Baka become literate in their language and gain other skills to help them cope with the rapidly-changing world around them.
Over the past 18 years, I’ve been privileged to meet hundreds of other dedicated individuals around the world. They are the kind of people spoken of in Hebrews 11: “. . . foreigners and strangers on earth . . . longing for a better country—a heavenly one.” My travels to where they live and serve have enabled me to tell their stories and hopefully inspire others to live for God’s glory.
That’s the most sacred journey of all.
To read more stories about Wycliffe’s staff and partners overseas, see wordalive.wycliffe.ca
Great story. Thanks.